The Infectious Diseases Programme is a national funding programme, which is supported through Malta Government funds and is managed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology. This programme will support innovative projects under the theme of infectious diseases. Maltese Public entities, Maltese Public research and knowledge-dissemination organisations as well as Maltese undertakings that carry out an economic activity are eligible to apply.
As the current COVID-19 pandemic rages on, it is becoming clearer that the warning signs about pathogen threats were not heeded during the last decade. Using the COVID-19 R&D Fund as a launch pad, it is important to consider the lessons learnt and provide support for further infectious disease research in the local community. The Infectious Diseases Programme (IDP) will help funnel R&I investment to ensure we are better prepared for threats posed by infectious diseases.
As we have seen, the effects of the pandemic not only had health implications but also socio-economic ones. Any plan to mitigate pandemics and infectious diseases has to take into consideration any R&I applied to the socioeconomic level as well. The biggest strength in these research areas lies in their interconnectedness. The research results can be amplified if multiple research areas are combined. The proposed sub-themes below can be expanded even further and are by no means exhaustive. An attempt at expanding the sub-themes into research niches for the Infectious Diseases Programme has been summarised in the table above. The type of research applicable in this programme varies from basic to more applied types, where applicable this programme is also intended for TRLs 1 to 7. A combination of both is needed to ensure effective outputs are produced in this research theme.
Participation Criteria: Up to €150,000 for Maltese Public Entities and Public Research and knowledge-dissemination organisations (Option B) or for Maltese eligible undertakings (Option A)
Project Timelines: 12, 18 or 24-month projects
Budget: €600,000
Get in touch by contacting us on ri.mcst@gov.mt (keeping owen.zammit.2@gov.mt and melchior.cini@gov.mt in copy), so we can schedule an information meeting and answer your queries.
This article was last updated on: August 31, 2021